Page 45 of Broken Destiny

Even though I can’t actually feel my body, my mind makes me think it’s still there, because my heart races with fear when men with masks covering the lower halves of their faces stomp into the room.

“And this one?” one asks clinically, his voice cultured and firm. The other man, a portly, balding fellow, flips through some pages on his clipboard.

“We’ve just acquired this one, Master Addington.” The name rings a faint bell, but I can’t remember where I heard it before. “It’s a sphinx.”

Itis ashe, I want to yell, but I can’t. I’m helpless. The realization highlights Kodi’s plight, able to see everything but unable to do anything about it. It’s horrible. The man called Addington perks up at the mention of my species. He strides toward the bed and peers at the girl like she’s an exquisite specimen in a lab or zoo. My younger self hisses and growls like a cat.

“An Abrams?” Addington asks with a touch of wonder in his voice.

The fat man nods, pleased with the other man’s interest. “The last, I’ve heard. Her parents were found slaughtered, and she was brought here. She was living ferally while the family was on the run. We weren’t the only group trying to catch her.”

“Of course not,” Addington snaps. His hand reaches toward the girl on the bed, and my dream self flinches. The ring he wears, the ring I remember, flashes in the bright glare of the lights. The child snaps at the hand as it approaches. “He who controls the sphinx controls the greatest library in the entire western world. It’s nothing but power, this library. The magic within it could fuel a million shifts, spells, or wards.” Greed suffuses his words.

Fuel? How can they extract magic from a supernatural being? I look closer at the wires and tubes, but they don’t appear to be anything different than a human hospital would use.

The man with the ring continues. “This won’t control her for long if she’s already shifted, which it appears she has. She’s close to her beast form right now. Have her transferred immediately. Put her in a stone cell with enough creature comforts to make her docile but nothing she can use as a weapon. Don’t assume she’s weak just because she’s little. My assistant and I will handle it from there.”

The balding, portly man shifts on his feet. “Of course, Master. There is the question of payment, though. This one is special, and it was quite difficult for our team to extract.”

Addington waves his hand. “Yes, yes. Whatever you want, we’ll pay for it. For now, put her under sedation.”

Not only was I a prisoner, but I was sold like a slave. The operation appears to be much bigger than we expected, possibly involving several different groups of people. The man Ansel’s friend saw executed was probably just one of many. The man inserts a syringe into the girl’s IV. She falls asleep, still growling.

The first reveal into my memories leaves me rattled. Why aren’t they starting when I was younger? I want to know about my parents too, although I don’t believe I’m ready to see them slaughtered if I actually saw it happen. Maybe the recollections will skip around?

The scene flashes, and I’m no longer looking at a tiny girl in a bed. The place looks like an ordinary room at first glance, but the paint peeling on one wall gapes to reveal the stone beneath and the door is an iron monstrosity with a barred window in the upper half and a crack at the bottom. It takes me several minutes to connect the prowling creature with myself. Shaped no bigger than a half-grown lioness, her sphinx form isn’t exactly what one calls beautiful. It’s bizarre to see a human face on the body of a lion. Her hair, once wild, has been shaved close to her head, and it only makes the cat ears above her human ears look stranger. When someone comes to the door, she growls and bares tiny, needle-sharp teeth.

“Shift to human,” a voice commands.

The sphinx growls louder and the person behind the door sighs. He doesn’t sound very old. “Please,” the figure adds, and the eyebrows on my nonexistent form fly up to my hairline. For a prison guard, he has polite manners.

The girl continues to pace back and forth, her beautiful wings tucked against her back and ruffling in agitation. “Shift, Sphinx, or I shall make you. I’d rather you do it yourself.”

The shifter must understand because, with a final roar, she is back to being just a girl a year or so older than the previous scene. A naked child. With her bottom lip protruding into a pout and her eyes fierce, she snatches a robe from the bed and wraps it around herself, but not before I see the collar around her throat. It’s golden and glittering; it might have been jewelry if I didn’t know any better. I’ve seen a collar like that before. It looks like Kodi’s tether, although it’s a different color and design. Can all supernaturals be drained?

The door opens slowly, and my heart falls to my feet. Even though he’s several years younger than his ghost age, I recognize Kodi. My eyes drink him in, memorizing the colors. He’s a scrawny boy just nearing his teenage years. His wavy, reddish-blonde hair extends everywhere in unruly tufts and his face is dotted with acne. The blue-green eyes are undeniable, though, the same ones I glimpsed when he flickered into solidity. He doesn’t appear happy to be doing what he’s doing, but there’s no collar around his neck. My chest tightens with pained understanding.

“Good girl,” the guard says, patting the girl on the head as if she were a housecat. She snaps at him, but it doesn’t appear like she actually means to bite him. The boy leads my younger self to a different room, one that doesn’t look too different from the hospital room. Machines line one side of the room, blinking ominously, and a steel table is equipped with leather cuffs for wrists and ankles. It sits in the center of the room, the focal piece.

I want to scream at the girl as she climbs on top of the table, her movements jerky. Why isn’t she fighting back? Why doesn’t she escape? Kodi takes his time circling the table and fastening the straps, securing her until she’s lying spread-eagled on her back. My stomach turns over.

“Just remember - go along with it, and he won’t hurt you too much.” His eyes are haunted as he whispers the words. The girl whimpers, her bravery faltering, and Kodi’s face twists into a grimace before he takes a step backward and stands in the corner with his arms crossed in front of him.

Minutes later, two men enter the room. One is the guy from the previous scene. Even without the face mask, I recognize him. He carries an aura of power with him, a barely-restrained sense of violence and confidence that makes people fear him on sight. He’s suave and handsome in his three-piece suit with his dark hair slicked back carefully. When the man turns toward my vantage point, I suck in a nonexistent breath. I recognize the slant of his brow and the shape of his nose. The significance of his last name pummels me in the stomach.

Addington. Garrett and Bren Addington. There’s no doubt in my mind that this man is the guys’ father. Do they know what he did when they were younger? Do they know that he was responsible for my captivity? My brain spins as it contemplates all the ways I might have been duped into taking them on as guardians. All of the things I’d been told repeatedly, that no one would want a cripple for a girlfriend, haunt me and strengthen the worries. Instead of being surrounded by friends, my guardians could be enemies.

The other individual in the room is one I don’t recognize immediately. He’s a nondescript man in his older middle age with a scar bisecting his brow. The line makes it appear as if he has a permanent frown. Now that I’ve seen it, I remember his face. My inner self shivers with fear. There’s a look of barely restrained excitement on his face, excitement about torturing me. Addington was my captor, but this man was my tormentor.

“Why isn’t the extraction working?” Addington snaps. His barely contained power rolls through the room and makes the other man pause momentarily.

“She seems to be protected, Master. Perhaps if we’d caught her before her first shift, it might be different, but her magic is protecting her. Sphinxes are different than normal shifters because they still retain their humanity in some sense, and they generally experience their first change younger than normal shifters. Whereas most shifters become the animal, she becomes both human and animal. Her human self is aware enough to fight, even if it goes against her primal instincts to prevent pain and ensure survival. Her beast lends her the power to fight.”

Addington growls and the scarred man shrinks backward a step. “Then prevent her from shifting again, Shawnessy. Maybe that protection will falter when she’s been only human for a while.”

“Yes, Master,” Shawnessy replies in a sycophantic tone. Afterward, he glances at Kodi. The boy remains stoic, looking anywhere but at the men or the little girl.

Addington turns on his heel and leaves. The second he’s gone, Shawnessy turns on Kodi. There’s a vague resemblance in the tint of their hair, and I wonder if they’re related. Is everyone I’ve come to trust a traitor of my past?

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